Whoever said the book market is dead hasn't seen the floor of our newsroom.

In the past several months, the Food & Wine department has been deluged with food-themed books on every subject - one more enticing than the next.

The chefs came out swinging this year, some with companion books to their popular restaurants around the country, others with tomes tailored for the home cook. From Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park in New York to a slew of local talent (see sidebar on previously reviewed cookbooks), it's been a good year for the back of the house.

Elsewhere, we saw volumes on the fundamentals, like "Ruhlman's Twenty," intense stories about food during wartime in "Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar," and the first community cookbook from Food52.com.

Whether you're cooking for one - as Joe Yonan does in "Serve Yourself" - or planning a meal for your hardworking restaurant staff (check out Marissa Guggiana's "Off the Menu"), there's something for everyone in this stack.

Here is a selection of favorites, good choices for holiday gifts:

Essential Pépin: With a 26-part series on public television, French chef Jacques Pépin - best known for his TV stints on "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home "and "Jacques Pépin: Fast Food My Way," among others - has published this companion book, chock full of over 700 useful recipes. Classic French and European dishes like cassoulet are featured along with some of Pépin's childhood favorites, including a homey sweet potato and chicken stew (see recipe).

Eleven Madison Park: As the French Laundry cookbook was in 1999, "Eleven Madison Park" is much more a coffee table book than a useful kitchen tool. But it's a stunning one, illustrated with photos of the famed New York restaurant's alluring dishes. Eight-step recipes are commonplace; dehydrated sauces and nitrous cartridges abound. Whether or not you dare to re-create is up to you, but it's a worthy gift nonetheless.

Serve Yourself: Single diners will love this handy little book of recipes to feed one. Author Joe Yonan - who also edits the food section of the Washington Post - writes from personal experience. Through sophisticated and approachable recipes, Yonan reminds us that cooking and dining solo can be a true pleasure. Fun anecdotes, storage tips for leftovers and useful techniques - like broiling pizza - make this a valuable addition to anyone's collection, single or otherwise.

Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar: It may not be the usual light holiday read, but it's a fascinating one. This compilation of food-centric stories from foreign correspondents around the world will put you at the table with well-fed dignitaries and on mountainsides in Afghanistan with soldiers digging through their MREs (meals ready to eat).

Whole Beast Butchery: Nothing is left to the imagination in this pictorial guide to breaking down whole animals. Ryan Farr, founder of San Francisco's 4505 meats and a self-taught artisan butcher, takes the reader on a journey from head to tail, sawing through lamb shoulder, separating beef tenderloin and spreading open the cavity of a pig to reveal a bumpy spine beneath. A smattering of recipes provides inspiration once the dirty - or exciting, if this is your thing - work is done.

The Food Lover's Guide to Wine: There are plenty of food and wine pairing books on the market, but when Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg - who wrote "The Flavor Bible" and "What to Drink with What You Eat" - chime in, we know it's going to be an informational read. Here, the flavor experts provide an A-to-Z listing of different wines, with pairing notes and tips.

Ruhlman's Twenty: Cook and food writer Michael Ruhlman believes that with 20 fundamentals under your belt, you can cook almost anything. He details these - along with 100 recipes - in his latest book. The "techniques" are a little broad and abstract - he lists water as one; onion as another. Still, with recipes like pastrami short ribs and mac and cheese with soubise illustrating his point, who are we to argue?

Off the Menu: We expect restaurant cooks to feed us - rarely do we think about what's actually fueling them. But in "Off the Menu," author Marissa Guggiana takes the reader on a culinary tour through many of America's famed restaurants to share staff meals. Plenty of local favorites, from Frances and Delfina in San Francisco to Oakland's Camino (check out the recipe at right for baked clams), make a cameo.

"Off the Menu," by Marissa Guggiana (Welcome Books; 288 pages; $40).

The Food 52 Cookbook: The first crowd-sourced cookbook from Food52.com - an online cooking community featuring weekly recipe contests - reads somewhat like a binder of random clippings and margin notes, in the best way. You'll find everything from wild ramp pesto to pudding chomeur, a decadent maple-and cream-soaked baked biscuit (see recipe). The beauty of this book is how well the recipes have been vetted - not only by authors and Food 52 creators Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, but also by the community of cooks who submitted them.

Worth a look

Through restaurant cookbooks this year, we traveled from Southern California to New York and north into Canada. These chef-driven tomes introduced us both to dishes so artful we wouldn't dare recreate them, and recipes so approachable we're surprised they came from the hands of a career chef. Here are three of our favorites:

Joe Beef, by Frédéric Morin, David McMillan & Meredith Erickson (Ten Speed Press; 292 pages; $40). A fun read from the owners of one of Montreal's best restaurants, including quirky photos, hilarious stories and alluring recipes.

Baked Clams With Chiles, Saffron & Tomatoes

Serves 4

This is adapted from the recipe for the family meal served at Camino in Oakland, published in "Off the Menu," by Marissa Guggiana.

1 spring onion or 1/2 bunch green onions

2 sprigs oregano

2 sprigs mint

2 dried chihuacle chiles, or espelette, guajillo or ancho chiles

2 tablespoons olive oil

-- Small pinch kosher salt

2 bay leaves

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

-- Small pinch saffron

1 cup chopped tomato, fresh or canned

2 pounds manila or other small clams

1/2 cup white wine

-- Grilled or toasted artisan bread

Instructions: Slice the spring onion or green onions on the bias into large pieces (use all the green part if it looks good). Pick the leaves off the oregano and mint and set aside. Mince or grind the chiles coarsely in a spice grinder.

Preheat the oven to 475°. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat; add the olive oil, spring onion, and salt. Cook until it begins to brown slightly and soften, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the bay leaves, garlic, chiles, and saffron. Continue cooking until the onion is soft, about 5 more minutes. Add the oregano, mint and tomato, and cook about 5 more minutes. Let some of the tomato stick to the pan, which will improve the sauce. Once you have some color in the pan, add the clams, wine and a splash of water.

Place the pan in the oven and cook until all the clams open, 5-15 minutes. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Serve with plenty of grilled bread to mop up the sauce.

Instructions: Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the chicken pieces in batches and saute over medium-high heat until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes.

Add the onion and cook for 1 minute. Add the shallots, mushrooms, yams or sweet potatoes, wine, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and yams are soft. Garnish with the parsley.

Pudding Chomeur

Serves 6 or 12

Adapted from "The Food 52 Cookbook," by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. We suggest adding a little salt to the biscuit and the syrup to balance the sweetness, and using the smaller ramekins. The syrup should come no closer than 1/4-inch from the rim of whatever ramekins you use; otherwise it will boil over. Note that the dough must be started a day ahead.

10 2/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups maple syrup

2 cups heavy cream

Instructions: In a large bowl or in a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the flour and baking powder; stir just until incorporated. Cover the dough and chill at least 24 hours.

Heat the oven to 450°.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, bring the syrup and cream to a boil; remove from the heat.

Divide the dough among six 8-ounce or 12 4-ounce ramekins. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet to collect any overflow. Pour the syrup mixture over the dough, dividing it evenly among the ramekins.